"Something?"
Zhan's voice asked softly after a moment.
Yibo shifted onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. One hand still held his phone, the other slid into his hair when Zhan went quiet again.
"Like what?" Zhan asked again.
Yibo closed his eyes, then opened them.
"I don't know. That's why I asked."
Silence followed....long enough that Yibo began to think Zhan wouldn't answer. He cleared his throat gently and said,
"There's a physiotherapist I know. I can ask him to come check on your brother tomorrow."
"They went to the hospital this morning," Zhan replied. "His hand was treated again. It's better than yesterday."
"Who took him to the hospital?"
"Uncle Elder sent Kanu Li Ge. They went with Aunty Shui."
Yibo pressed his lips together slightly, repeating the names in his head before asking,
"So they're all family?"
"Uncle Elder is my uncle. Kanu Li Ge is his son. Aunty Shui is my aunt."
"So you live in an extended family house?"
"Yes. I live with my grandmother."
Yibo fell silent, his eyes fixed on the dim bedside lamp. Something settled heavily in his chest....something he hadn't planned to say, something he usually avoided entirely. He had trained himself not to look at people through that lens. But this time, the words slipped out anyway.
"What about your parents, Zhan? Where are they?"
The pause that followed made the weight of the question sink in even deeper. Then Zhan's voice came quietly.
"My mother passed away. I don't know where my father is."
The words struck Yibo all at once. His chest tightened, his ears filled with a dull rush, and for a moment he didn't know which feeling to process first. A few seconds passed before he swallowed hard and spoke.
"I'm sorry, may her soul rest in peace."
"It's okay, thank you" Zhan replied softly.
But Yibo's thoughts lingered on that single sentence.
I don't know where my father is.
Simple words....yet they carried layers. Questions. Histories. Things that shaped a person without ever being spoken aloud. He wanted to ask more, wanted to understand, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to pry. Zhan didn't owe him explanations.
Just then, Zhan spoke again.
"Did the procedure happen?"
"What procedure?" Yibo asked, momentarily lost.
"The surgery you said you'd be doing when you arrived."
"Oh." Yibo shook his head. "Not yet. It's scheduled for tomorrow. Just one patient, and from the meeting we had, it shouldn't take long."
"So you'll be coming back tomorrow?" Zhan asked without thinking.
"No. Probably Sunday. I want to rest. But if things don't go as planned, I'll come back earlier."
"I hope everything goes smoothly."
"By the heavens sake"
Yibo answered immediately, then added honestly,
"I like the way you say praying words, Zhan. They're calming."
He heard something like a quiet smile on the other end, though Zhan didn't say anything. Yibo shifted onto his side, facing the closed curtains covering the balcony doors.
"Zhan…" he called again into the quiet room.
"Yes?"
"I'll make sure I help you with your job when I get back, okay?"
"I hope so."
Yibo wanted Zhan to keep talking. He didn't want the call to end....but he also didn't want the feelings rising in his chest to deepen any further. He ran a hand through his hair and said,
"Talk to you in the morning?"
"Okay," Zhan replied.
"Thanks for staying on the call."
"Thank you too."
¦
¦
TWO DAYS LATER
"Two months? Just two?"
Yibo asked into the phone, standing in front of the bathroom sink, staring at his reflection after rinsing his mouth. Duan had called him with the news....his parents had already met the girl's parents, the bride price had been settled, and the wedding date fixed for just two months away.
"Yes. Not even three months. Two months exactly," Duan replied.
"And you're really ready for that?"
Yibo asked, disbelief creeping into his voice.
Duan laughed.
"Yibo, if they told me next week was the wedding, I'd still be ready. I've already sorted almost everything out. By the end of this month, we'll even be delivering the wedding gifts."
Yibo nodded as he stepped out of the bathroom.
"Seriously… I'm happy for you."
Duan laughed again.
"Don't worry. Once I'm settled, I'll drag you along too. It's about time your life changed, Yibo."
Your life changed.
Those words stayed with him, drowning out the rest of Duan's voice. Because over the past two days, that was exactly what it felt like.
He hadn't been able to think clearly without Zhan crossing his mind. And what unsettled him the most was not the thought itself....but the question behind it.
Why did Zhan affect him this much?
Why did his presence linger so deeply in his thoughts?
Yibo had faced problems before....real ones. Problems he couldn't control, problems he had learned to live around, protecting his peace the only way he knew how.
But Zhan wasn't a problem.
Zhan was something else entirely....something unfamiliar, undefined, and quietly unsettling.
That was why, for the past two days, Yibo had forced himself not to call. Even though he wanted to hear Zhan's voice, he needed time....to understand what was happening to him first.
Because whether he was ready to admit it or not, his life was changing.
And it was changing in a way he didn't yet know how to stop.
After ending the call with Duan, Yibo set his phone aside and dialed Nangfu's number....the same one he had noticed earlier among his missed calls. Nangfu was the head of a charitable organization Yibo had been working closely with for years.
"Hello, good morning," Nangfu greeted warmly over the phone.
"Good morning. Sorry I missed your call earlier....I wasn't near my phone," Yibo replied.
"It's no problem at all. I just wanted to let you know that we'll be completing the construction today. Only the painting is left, and that should be finished later today."
Yibo nodded to himself.
"Good work. Once this is done, will you be moving on to another project?"
"Not immediately. Some students will be graduating from the school in about two weeks, so we're waiting for that to conclude before moving forward. The next project is larger, so we're planning to start early next month."
"It's not housing?" Yibo asked.
"No, it's a school in the village we discussed."
"Alright. Before then, please send me the full plan and budget."
"Of course. Thank you very much."
They exchanged farewells, and Yibo ended the call.
For the first time since waking up that morning, his hand drifted back to the thing that had occupied his thoughts relentlessly.....the thing that had pulled him into deep reflection the moment his eyes landed on it.
He opened WeChat, scrolled past countless messages, and stopped at a group titled Primecare Hospital Board Members.
Among the messages, one stood out....a single PDF sent earlier that morning by the CMO. Yibo opened it. Inside were scanned copies of five documents, all pointing to one conclusion: the medical error that led to the patient's death had been officially attributed to Zhan. The report was detailed, thorough, and disturbingly convincing.
Below it was a short note from the CMO stating that this was the final consolidated confirmation and that the documents would be forwarded to the Professor that same day, now that he had returned from his trip, so the issue could be formally addressed by Monday.
Yibo had read the file countless times since morning. With every rereading, the words felt more solid, more believable....crafted in a way that would persuade anyone who read them. Especially the Professor, who was known to be intolerant of anything that threatened the success of the program he had championed.
He glanced at the time....just past ten. Morning was already slipping away. It was late enough now that calling wouldn't be considered intrusive.
Yibo went straight to his call log and dialed the Professor's driver to confirm his whereabouts. The call was answered almost immediately. After brief greetings, the driver informed him that the Professor had returned late the previous night and was currently on the road to Beijing due to the passing of a close friend. They had already checked out of the guesthouse and were on their way to pick up another friend colleague before continuing together.
Yibo thanked him and ended the call.
After that, his fingers hovered over Professor Fan Shutong's number. He stared at it, weighing his options. Part of him still believed a face-to-face meeting would be better, as he had originally planned. But he knew the other board members had already given their approval, and once the CMO forwarded the report officially, the matter would move to the next stage.... beyond his control.
He had promised himself he wouldn't allow any delay or obstacle.
So he pushed aside the hesitation, pressed the call button, and stood still, watching the screen instead of raising the phone to his ear.
One second.
Two seconds.
The call went through.
✨✨✨
Old Estates, Phase 1, Nanjing
In the Old Estates neighborhood of Nanjing, every street was washed in the pale glow of early morning.... streetlights, wall lamps, and the soft reflections bouncing off the wet asphalt and concrete interlocks. A cool breeze drifted through the area, deepening the quiet chill that settled over the neatly planned estate.
From a grand house on the right side, one would cross a wide compound filled with greenery and a parking area before reaching a spacious veranda that opened into the first living room. From there, the rich aroma of freshly simmered pumpkin soup wafted in from the large, open kitchen nearby, blending with the steady hum of the air conditioner that had long filled the room with cool air.
Everything inside was spotless....so clean that no one would guess the house had been empty for over two months. Not every light in the living room was on, but the darkness only made the glow of the switches stand out more clearly.
From the dining area, Qiaoxi, dressed in elegant home attire that reflected her refined taste, set down a tray holding cups and spoons beside the tea canisters on the table. She turned back toward the kitchen, switched off the large pot of pumpkin soup on the gas stove, then stepped toward the back door to peer outside.
Beyond the door stretched a wide backyard, with a tall mango tree standing firmly at its center. Nearby was the house's large water tank, tiled neatly around the base, with a washing area where most household water work was done.
At the edge of the yard, she spotted two elderly house staff focused on preparing grilled snacks that everyone in the house enjoyed for breakfast, using a large gas burner.
They were the only ones who stayed overnight; the two younger helpers came during the day and always left in the evening.
"Mama Ai, once that warmer is full, bring it to me," Qiaoxi called out.
Mama Ai immediately picked up one of the kettles and came over.
"We. could finished earlier, Madam. The gas ran out, so we had to call Hankuo to replace it."
"That's fine. There's still time....no one is up yet," Qiaoxi said, taking the warmer.
"I'll come and bring out the tea things."
"I've already done that. Just go back and continue your work."
Mama Ai smiled. "You never seem to get tired of this kind of work, Madam."
"Well, some things need hands-on care," Qiaoxi replied, turning back inside.
She passed through the kitchen into the living room and placed the warmer on the dining table. Glancing at the clock, she noted it was just past ten. She returned to the kitchen, filled another warmer with soup, arranged everything neatly on a small tray, and carried it through the main living room before turning into the corridor on the right.
She passed a smaller sitting area before reaching the door of her husband's bedroom.... Mr. Wang Haozhi. With one hand, she gently turned the handle and stepped inside, greeting softly. As soon as she entered, she heard his voice on the phone, speaking in his native language....a language she still couldn't understand a single word of, even after all these years together.
Her mind drifted back to when he first came to ask for her hand in marriage. The family had talked endlessly about how she would marry into the Haotu tribe. Some even claimed he would later bring back his first wife, who was also Haotu, and that if she didn't drive her away, they would all be forced to coexist under one roof. She had shut her ears to all of it and embraced the marriage wholeheartedly....along with everything that came with it, including the pains no one had warned her about.
There was no other wife, no language barrier, nothing in her life now that felt separable from Wang Haozhi true nature. It felt almost unreal to imagine a life that didn't include him. Was it from the day she married him that her heart changed?
Or from the day she gave birth to their first children's.....A Bo and Yibo?
Or perhaps from the moment the conflict between him and Yibo began....a conflict whose thread had never been fully severed, both of them pulling at opposite ends while she alone bore the strain in between.
It had been over a month....nearly two...since she returned home from her failed attempt to find Yibo. Every plan she had carefully built collapsed the moment her secrets were exposed before her children...and before the man she now stood facing.
His expression was as unreadable as ever. Since her return from Zhenyang, his anger toward her had not faded. Her heart was weary from the constant ache, from realizing how everything had shifted. Losing daily contact with the son she had lived for was only the beginning; the weight of the sorrow he placed on her afterward was something she could no longer count.
Time and again, she marveled at how, to men like Wang Haozhi, a woman's life seemed to amount to obedience and childbirth alone. Any opinion of her own, any worry or choice, was dismissed without a second glance. In such men, authority was absolute. And once their rules were broken, no amount of past devotion or patience mattered.... the single offense became the only thing they saw.
That was why, since her return and his cold indifference to her illness, she had done something she had never done before: she withdrew completely from any emotional exchange with him. Her only interaction now was this....bringing his food every meal time and greeting him. Whether he responded or not no longer mattered. Her heart felt scorched beyond fear. She would turn and leave without hesitation, not to be seen again until the next morning.
So after setting down the tray and offering her greeting, she turned to leave.
But near the door, his voice stopped her.
"Qiaoxi."
He said her name clearly. She did not turn, only paused, listening. She knew he might not even be looking at her.
"I'm traveling today. I'm going to Beijing for a condolence visit. I'll be gone for three days."
She nodded without turning back.
"Safe Journey."
She opened the door and stepped out.
What she didn't know was that if she had understood what that trip to Beijing truly carried with it, she might have turned.... if only once....to leave even the faintest trace of her gaze in Wang Haozhi's eyes.
She left the room just as the driver brought the car carrying Professor Fan Shutong to a stop at their gate. At the same moment, Professor Fan Shutong's phone rang.....Yibo's call flashing on the screen.
Tues, 30 Dec.
2025
Zhanxianyibo💚❤️💛